The oldest known living Piping Plover made her way back to the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore (SBDNL) for the 16th time.
The Piping Plover named Gabby broke a tie with two 15-year-old males last year. Gabby is a frequent visitor to Sleeping Bear Point, and her band is a combination of OS GB XY.
“(Gabby) is back and is nesting,” SBDNL wildlife biologist Vince Cavalieri said. “We get periodic reports of (Gabby) in her winter grounds at another National Park Service site, Cumberland Islands National Seashore in Georgia. But this year, she had not been seen since late January, so we were afraid she had finally disappeared. But then it was actually the day we were doing our preseason meeting. One of our monitors spotted her out on the beach that day.”
